Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)

I am trying to put a serious argument to a Government which is failing to address the unemployment crisis. I would be amazed if Deputy Humphreys did not believe the domestic economy is on the floor or that we have a real problem with our banks. If the banks do not start lending this €90 million fund will not even begin to address the problem. How many businesses are likely to succeed, even with the best intentions in the world, on the finance this fund can provide while demand continues to contract? Demand is guaranteed to collapse further if we introduce further cuts and taxes on the incomes of ordinary people in coming budgets. It does not add up. I support this Bill but let us not pretend it will have a significant impact against a background of a depressed domestic economy and collapsing demand.

Even though we now own the banks, they are refusing to lend because they know it is too risky to do so in the absence of demand. If a business goes to a bank to request credit, the bank will point out that with the economy on the floor there is little demand for business products or services. Until we address that issue, we are wasting our time. It is time that the Government breaks with its ideological aversion to intervening directly in the economy through major public enterprise and public work schemes directed at strategic areas in order to put tens of thousands of people back to work and get demand into the economy. By refloating the economy in this way, small and medium enterprises will begin to thrive.

See this speech in context